


Good or Bad

by ToshiChan



Category: Sarah Jane Adventures
Genre: Autism Spectrum, Character Study, Dating, Fluff, Found Family, Gay Male Character, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, Hurt/Comfort, I snuck Bill Potts into this, M/M, Parent-Child Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-07
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2020-02-27 16:24:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18742696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToshiChan/pseuds/ToshiChan
Summary: Luke was grown and then he ran and when he stopped, he realised that no matter what, he’d always be struggling to fill in the gaps.And so he had to ask.“Is that good or bad?”





	Good or Bad

**Author's Note:**

> I relate a lot to Luke and I really miss this show

For Luke, things never came all the easily, even if he had the knowledge of ten thousand people stored inside his head. Having knowledge didn’t equal having experience, as he’d found out. He didn’t fit in very well, he didn’t understand things that other people did. People were born and they grew and as they did, they learnt and they got taught and they understood things.

Luke was grown and then he ran and when he stopped, he realised that no matter what, he’d always be struggling to fill in the gaps.

And so he had to ask.

“Is that good or bad?”

 

 

 

 

It became somewhat of a regular thing. Something would happen, or someone would do something, and Luke, entirely lost, would have to ask it.

“Is that good or bad?”

The more he asked it though, the more he realised that sometimes, answers were subjective. Unlike things like maths (which he was really, really good at), people usually thought different about different things. He could get a different answer for the same question from two different people. Luke didn’t like that. He wanted things to be certain, he wanted to know something without a doubt. When someone said something was good, only for another person to say it was bad, it made his head spin.

The best person to ask was mum. She was always right. And she’d always explain why, instead of just saying something was good or bad and leaving it at that. She understood that he needed to understand. She was happy to help him do that.

Other people weren’t so nice.

 

 

 

 

School was the place where Luke stood out the most. Everyone there knew what they had to do and how they were meant to behave but Luke didn’t. He didn’t have that experience. When the Bane had made him, it wasn’t so he could learn the intricacies of being human, it was so he could possess important information like biology and maths. The Bane didn’t think he needed to know about how to act in social situations, and so that had been skipped over.

It meant that in school, Luke struggled.

 

 

 

 

“Luke, you have to stop correcting the teacher.” A girl sighed.

“Why? Is that good or bad.”

“Bad, definitely.”

“Why?”

“Because.”

Luke didn’t like it when people told him that.

 

 

 

 

“Luke, I think a girl likes you.” A boy snickered.

“Is that good or bad?”

“Very good.”

“Why?”

“Because she’s hot.”

“Hot? Has she got a temperature?”

“Man, you’re weird.”

“Is that good or bad?”

He didn’t get an answer for that one.

 

 

 

 

They sent Luke to the school counsellor once and she gave him all these brochures and leaflets about something called autism. He didn’t understand what it meant.

“Is that good or bad?”

“Well, Luke, it depends on who you ask.” The counsellor said.

Luke had frowned, puzzled. “I’m asking you.”

“Talk to your mum.” Luke knew enough to know a dismissal when he heard one.

When he asked mum about it and she told him it was good, he was good, he was fine, he was perfect.

It didn’t feel like an answer.

 

 

 

 

The more Luke realised that people had opinions and that they shared these opinions like facts, the more worried he got. He liked facts. He liked knowing things for sure. But opinions were different. They were a tricky territory. People expected him to have them and he just wanted to be right. He wanted to prove that being created in a lab didn’t make him different.

But having opinions were hard. If he had the wrong one, then people wouldn’t like him. And he wanted people to like him.

 

 

 

 

“Is that good or bad?” He asked once when their history teacher started a debate about immigrants.

“It depends on who you ask.” The teacher answered.

Luke had frowned. From what he understood, there was only one proper answer. People deserved rights. They deserved homes and food and to be safe. Therefore, they shouldn’t turn immigrants away. So why were people fighting about it? It shouldn’t be an opinion. It should be a fact.

“I don’t understand.” He frowned.

“That’s nothing new.” The teacher had muttered and the class all laughed.

At him.

“Is that good or bad?” He asked.

No one replied.  

 

 

 

 

He tried to talk about it to Clyde once, but Clyde just shrugged and told Luke to stop worrying. Apparently it shouldn’t matter what other people thought of him.

But it did to Luke.

It really did.

 

 

 

 

“Did you hear that Penny asked Bill on a date? And she said yes.” Some kid called Jamie dropped down next to Luke at lunch. Luke knew the name of every person in school since he’d been told it was polite to remember who people were. Jamie had curly hair and brown eyes and Luke thought he always looked nice.

Luke put his juice down. “Is that good or bad?”

“It’s disgusting.” Jamie sneered and it was strange how Luke suddenly realised Jamie didn’t look nice at all. “Two girls dating? It’s not normal. Boys date girls and girls date boys. That’s how it works. That’s the right thing.”

Luke frowned intently at the table. He didn’t understand. Boys shouldn’t like boys? That was a fact? It didn’t feel right. It felt like Jamie should have given him a different answer.

 

 

 

 

“Mum.” He asked later that night as he sat with her in the living room. She was reading and he was finishing an assignment that was due in a month. “Is it disgusting if two girls date?”

His mum dropped her book in surprise. “Who told you that?”

“Jamie.”

“Is that a boy from school?”

“Mm.”

“What happened?”

Luke told her. She listened without interrupting and then nodded seriously when he’d finished.

“It’s Jamie’s opinion that girls shouldn’t like other girls, or that boys shouldn’t like other boys.”

There they were again. Opinions.

“But,” Mum continued. “Jamie is very wrong, darling. It doesn’t matter who you like. At the end of the day, love is love and it’s a wonderful thing. People who disagree are wrong.”

“So it’s bad to think girls dating girls and boys dating boys is bad?” Luke asked hopefully.

“Yes, Luke.” Mum kissed his forehead gently. “Very bad indeed.”

Luke slept easy that night, satisfied about something he couldn’t quite place.

 

 

 

 

“Clyde!” He said the next day when he saw his friend. “Did you know that boys can date boys and it’s a good thing!”

“Uh, yeah.” Clyde frowned. “Course I do.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I thought you knew, being super smart and everything.”

Luke paused. “The Bane didn’t give me information like that. I guess they thought it conflicted with my purpose.”

“Well, screw the Bane.” Clyde wrapped an arm around Luke’s shoulder. “Come on, we’re gonna be late.”

 

 

 

 

Luke did not fit in well at school. That was a fact. He didn’t understand social cues, didn’t get why some people were so set on things they called opinions, when they were so clearly wrong. He constantly had to ask if something was good or bad, and most times, nobody ever gave him a straight answer. It didn’t matter that he was apparently smarter than everyone else. When it came down to it, it felt like he knew nothing.

But he was learning.

Humans were born and they grew and they learnt and they fit in.

Luke was made and he ran and then he stopped and he started learning.

He didn’t fit in with everyone.

But he fit in with the people that mattered.

 

 

 

 

“Luke.” Clyde said one day. “Do you wanna maybe…go out sometime.”

“We go out all the time.” Luke cocked his head, confused. “We go to school and we go on adventures and fight aliens and sometimes we go to the hospital when we get hurt, because that happens a lot.

“Yeah, well, this would be different.” Clyde seemed flustered. “It would be, you know, going out as a date.”

“A date? I don’t know what that is.”

“It’s when two people who like each other a lot go and do things.” Clyde explained awkwardly. “Not school and hospital trips. It’s stuff like, having dinner together or going to the movies alone. Things like that.”

“Oh.” Luke smiled. “That makes sense. I like you and you like me. So we should go and do things together.”

“Yeah, I do.” Clyde smiled back. “A lot.”

“And that’s a good thing.”

“Yeah. A really good thing.”

“Good.” Luke was satisfied. “Because I like you a lot too.”

 

 

 

 

Luke and Clyde held hands at school sometimes. Luke wasn’t exactly sure of the purpose behind it. Maybe it was to stop him from getting lost? But that didn’t make sense, because Luke never got lost. But he liked it when Clyde reached out and took his hand. It made him feel warm and safe. Sometimes, Luke never felt safe. He was terrified that the Bane would come back and take him away or kill him. It was nice that Clyde made those bad thoughts go away.

 

 

 

 

They were holding hands one day as they left school and a bunch of boys cornered them. Leading them was Jamie, the boy who used to look nice but didn’t anymore.

“Fags.” Jamie spat at them.

Clyde stiffened but Luke didn’t understand.

“Is that good or bad?” He asked.

“It’s bad.” Clyde whispered in his ear. “It’s a bad thing to call people like us. But we’re not bad. Understand?”

“Yeah.” Luke turned to Jamie and scowled. “He’s bad.”

“What did you say to me?” Jamie took a step closer.

Clyde’s hand tightened in his and Luke realised that maybe, it was time to run again.

They didn’t end up getting away. It was hard to escape from six people when you didn’t want to stop holding hands.

 

 

 

 

“Clyde and I are dating.” Luke announced to mum as she pressed a band-aid against a cut across his nose. “That was why Jamie and his friends hurt us.”

He felt his mum’s hands tremble as she smoothed the band-aid down against his skin. “I see.”

“It’s good, right?” He asked, suddenly nervous. “It’s good that we’re dating.”

“Of course.” Mum reached for another band-aid to apply to a graze on his knee. “It’s a very good thing.”

“That’s why Clyde said. And that’s what I think.” Luke said, relieved. “It’s weird that Jamie doesn’t.”

“He sounds like a very backwards boy.” Mum ruffled Luke’s hair.

And normally, that wouldn’t make sense. People couldn’t be backwards. And yet somehow, it did.

“He’s a bad person.” Luke said angrily. “He hurt Clyde.”

“Yes.” Mum sighed and pulled him close to her. “I’ll go into school and yell at some teachers for you tomorrow.”

“Thanks.”

“Anytime.”

 

 

 

 

“Jamie got expelled.” Clyde ran over to Luke the moment he saw him. “I heard about it in class.”

“Oh.” Luke paused. “Is that good or bad?”

And Clyde laughed and tugged Luke in for a hug and held him close.

“Super good.”

“That’s better than just good.” Luke noticed.

“Yep.” Clyde grinned into him. “Sure is.”

 

 

 

 

Luke didn’t understand a lot of things that people thought he should’ve understood, because things were hard sometimes and knowing things didn’t always mean you got them.

But with Clyde at his side and his mum behind him, supporting him in every way she possibly could, Luke knew that he could do what he’d always done best.

Learn.

Good or bad?

Good. Definitely good.

**Author's Note:**

> For as long as I can remember, I have always wanted to write a fic for this series dealing about Luke, and how he thinks, and about him liking boys. I always related to Luke a lot, in how he thinks and feels and interacts with people. This is a very disjointed fic because I felt that was the best way to write it.
> 
> Please leave kudos and comments if you liked it. Like I said, it's been a life long goal to write a story like this and I finally have and I'd love to know if I did a good job.


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